The present invention relates to baseball training devices and more particularly to a tethered training bat attached by flexible elastic to a fixed anchor point, or to a pulley and weight system.
Prior art training bat devices are designed to accomplish one of the two basic purposes, to train a batter""s muscles to swing the bat correctly, to develop the batter""s muscles and improve batting strength and velocity. General batting practice using a pitcher or a pitching machine is sometimes inefficient particularly with newer players who may be unable to hit the ball. In this case, the batter gets little accuracy or muscle strength training. A pitching machine is a good device, however, it doesn""t add any resistance to the swing and does not strengthen the muscles to give a more powerful swing.
The following patents are examples of prior art devices: U.S. Pat. No. 6,030,299 to Denny discloses a suspended ball held by a flexible, resilient plate giving resistance to the batter""s swing, does offer a training and strengthening device but is mechanically complex and costly to build; U.S. Pat. No. 6,050,908 to Muhlsen discloses a training bat having a handle member with a shock absorbing coupler and at least one detachable elongated contact surface member coupled in the shock absorbing coupler wherein at least one detachable elongated contact surface member has a width significantly less than the width of a regular bat to enhance the eye-to-hand coordination to contact a pitched ball; U.S. Pat. No. 5,595,384 to Hardison, Jr. discloses a bat swing guide including a vertical support member and an arcuate guide attached at one end to the vertical support member. The arcuate guide is generally semi-circular and may be positioned to accommodate either a righthanded or lefthanded hitter. A pivoting tee is attached to the vertical support member for supporting a ball. An adjustable bat stop is attached to the distal end of the arcuate guide; U.S. Pat. No. 5,014,984 to Brockhoff discloses a practice baseball bat having an elongated shaft of predetermined length. One end of the shaft has a hand-grip portion and an elongated, enlarged cylindrical ball contact portion which extends intermediate the ends of the shaft and adjacent the other end of the shaft.
None of the prior art devices provide a training and strengthening device which can be adjusted as to the direction or angle of the swing or by adding additional weights to gradually increase the strength of the body.
The present invention provides a truncated training bat having a coated steel wire yoke attached to its distal end. A flexible rubber cord (or multiples thereof) is attached by hooked ends to a yoke at one end and to a fixed base at the other. In a further embodiment, the bat is attached by a cord to a pulley and weight resistance system.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a new, improved, and inexpensive batting training device that strengthens the batter by using flexible, no impact, resistance.
A further object of the invention is to provide a training device which can be used anywhere there is a suitable attachment or suspension point.
A still further object of the invention is to provide a training device which can be adjusted to give greater or lesser resistance and by so doing, becomes useful to a wide age range of players.
Another object of the invention is to provide a handle dimensioned exactly as a normal baseball bat to familiarize the user with the feel of a regular bat.